The other Allah debate

The word Allah has been used for hundreds of years in the Golden Chersonese or the Malay Peninsula without any problems.

COMMENT

If politicians form the group of people whom we despise most, then the sanctimonious hypocrites have to come a close second. The holier-than-thou types make the lives of many people a misery. They judge others by a strict set of rules, to which many of them fail to adhere.

The current Allah debate, sparked off by Penang’s Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, is our latest political football. The government has to pretend it is the defender of Malay rights and so the Allah debate will never reach a satisfactory conclusion before GE-13.

Umno Muslims must have a low opinion of their fellow Muslims if they think that the use of the word Allah by non-Muslims would lead to “confusion”. If Muslims can be confused by their non-Muslim friends using the word “Allah” then perhaps, we should blame the Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, for an education system which churns out idiots.

There is no confusion. The word Allah has been used for hundreds of years in the Golden Chersonese or the Malay Peninsula without any problems. The word Allah, from the Aramaic language, has been used in the middle-east, by both Muslims and Christians for thousands of years.

Around 2009, a senior Umno politician decided to gain brownie points and spook the Muslim masses, by claiming that only Umno can protect the Malays, their faith, their rulers and their way of life, the word Allah was banned from use by non-Muslims. The rest as they say, is history.

The “Allah” debate is nothing compared with the misuse of the words, “Insha Allah”, a tag which many Muslims adjoin to the end of their statements.

The misuse of “Insha Allah”, is more insidious, affects both Muslims and non-Muslims, in and out of Malaysia, and is a bane in our lives. Some Muslims liberally lace their speech with “Insha Allah”.

How many times have some Muslims told us that they would do something, and then end their statements with “Insha Allah”? How often has that commitment failed to be fulfilled?

The following are some of the ways many Muslims have abused the words “Insha Allah”:

“I will check out the contract requirements by the end of the week, Insha Allah.”

“When I finish shopping, I will meet you at the library, Insha Allah”.

“Don’t worry, I will drive mother to her friend’s house, Insha Allah.”

“The cheque will be posted before the end of the month, Insha Allah.”

“Leave it to me. I will make sure she gets to her class on time, Insha Allah.”

“Trust me, I will sign the documents before the deadline, Insha Allah.”

Breaking promises

In my experience, the people in the above examples used the words “Insha Allah” as an excuse to break their promise.

They may have had no intention of keeping their promise, or they may have been too lazy to keep to their end of the deal, or found something more exciting to do instead. So they say that what happened was God’s will.

Perhaps, others have had different experiences or been more “lucky” with people who say “Insha Allah”.

For those who are not aware, the words “Insha Allah” means “If Allah wills it” or simply “God willing”.

To those of us who have been let down many times, “Insha Allah” might as well mean “maybe” or “If I can be bothered” or “I might do it, if I have nothing better to do”.

Whenever someone uses the words “Insha Allah”, I know that person has no intention of carrying out his promise.

Muslims who do not understand what the words truly mean, tend to use these words flippantly. Although some of the Muslims who use these words are sincere, the majority are not.

First, they say “Insha Allah” because they realise that few people will question the power of God. Second, this cop-out clause is a useful excuse to explain why they failed to live up to their promise, because they will say, “God willed it”.

It would be nice if people were more open and admit that they could not fulfil the promise, rather than tell lies and invoke the name of God. Ultimately, it is not the faith in God that is tested, rather our trust and relationship in our friend, colleague or relative that is damaged.

People who have worked in the middle-east will be only too familiar with the phrase, “Inkin bukra, Insha Allah” which means “Maybe tomorrow, God willing.” This makes the word mañana sound like a call for immediate action.

Returning to the Allah debate, Lim’s Christmas message of 2012 failed to elicit the spirit of Christian cheer and goodwill from some Malaysians. The joyful tidings he was trying to raise, has started a raging debate, all because he urged Putrajaya to allow Christians to use the word “Allah” in the Malay version of the bible.

So, instead of people lighting the Christmas pudding, Malaysia’s latest defenders of Islam, a group of 100 members of the Pertubuhan Penyatuan Pembelaan Melayu Malaysia (PPPMM) staged a protest and burned portraits of Lim.

Political firestorm

Whether or not Lim’s controversial message was due to his naïvety or was a plea on behalf of the Christians, is a moot point.

He has started the latest political firestorm and of course, the usual whackos have come crawling out of the woodwork.

One of these is the mufti of Perak, Harussani Zakaria who warned non-Muslims that to demand the use of the word “Allah” in the Malay bible would provoke Muslims and make them melatah (hysterical): “Christians should not interfere with Islam, they’d be better off taking care of their own religion. If they want to use Allah, convert into Islam.”

Harussani is a man with little credibility. A truly religious man should not be a firebrand, similar to the Taliban.

The prophet Mohamad said there should be no compulsion in Islam. Harussani is allegedly the same man who almost started a riot by circulating a rumour of the mass baptism of Malays in a church in Silibin, Ipoh. He is also the spoilsport who banned the poco-poco dance.

In Malaysia, football is a religion. Harussani upset many people, including Muslims, when he said that Muslims should not wear football jerseys with Christian symbols like the cross, or jerseys with red devils like those of the Manchester United football club.

Converts like Ridhuan Tee Abdullah may act more Muslim than the Malays, but the wannabe Arabs, the sanctimonious Umno Muslims, are the most obnoxious with their claims that they are God’s chosen people.

Is this really God’s will, or a test of our moral fibre and character?

Mariam Mokhtar is a FMT columnist.